Monday afternoon links

Helpless against this firing squad: He sent Tony Allen and Gabe Pruitt in for captain Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Eighteen seconds later, he made the surrender complete by inserting Mikki Moore and Bill Walker for Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo, and so it was official even before the final buzzer. [Globe]

What of the future? You do the math: Barring some startling development – and with Danny Ainge as general manager it’s wise to keep your mental seat belt fastened – the Celtics won’t have to start contemplating that future for at least another year. [Globe]

Rediscovered touch not enough for Celtics: Stan Van Gundy was talking like a man who’d been spending all his spare time reading – ingesting – the press clippings and the blogs, going so far as to suggest that, hey, the sportswriters would have you believe his Orlando Magic had been trailing this best-of-seven playoff series against the Celtics [team stats] “six to nothing.’ [Herald]

The Celtics were 1 game shy of this moral victory. The Celtics were 1 quarter shy of this victory… Heck, if we really want to play this game, the Celtics were a mere 2 minutes away from this victory (the first 2 minutes of the 4th quarter in Game 7 v. ORL when the Magic went on an 11-0 run).

If you ask me, that is as good as the moral victory. They were that close… that close.

In this case, I’m choosing to be the right kind of fan. The Celtics gave us a great run this season. Remember when they won 19 games in a row before falling to the Lake show? Or how they were still 27-3 after having their win streak snapped? Remember how they won 18 games after KG went down with his mysterious knee injury and still managed to win 70% of their games down the stretch until the playoffs without one of the league’s best players? Remember how the Celtics gave us the BEST opening round playoff series in league history against the formidable and dangerous Chicago Bulls?? Remember how the Celts took the Magic to Game 7 in a series they could have lost after 5 games?

I remember all of that. I remember seeing an aging team dig down and its veteran players fight until the final minutes of Game 7. I remember seeing 3 young players (Rondo, Perk, Baby) step onto the big stage and be asked to help to carry a sizable the chunk of responsibility alongside 2 hall of famers in order to make a serious run back to the conference championships/finals. I remember seeing our best bench player stay in a game for an extra 3 minutes after tearing ligaments in his left knee to fight through it for the team– Powe had microfacture surgery a few weeks ago.